Cooking with Peri - TV Studio Project - Diary entries

01/12/16

We began our first day on the children's TV studio Project. We first began with Laura pitching her idea on the show we would be making, this consisted of the characters and the information that would be presented within the show such as an educational theme. it would be aimed at children under 6 because of the language and the way the presenter acts in the show which will be very child-friendly. We then began delegating the job roles so everyone knew exactly what they needed to do, I was given the job of the producer which meant I needed to organised the entire project with the help of the director Laura. For the pre-production, I decided to split it among the group so as to make it quicker and easier to get completed. The work I split among the group was (josh) risk assessment, (Nico) location recce, (Conor) Scriptwriter, (Laura) Storyboard, (Me) shooting schedule, (Lucy) floor plan, (Me) shot list.

08/12/16

After giving out the jobs for the pre-production I began organising the shooting schedule so we had everything mapped out and to make everything fit together. The first thing I needed to be sorted was the market scene which needed permission from Ashton Market, I managed to find the number and gave them a call to organize a date for filming, Unfortunately the manager of the market wasn't in so I left a message and was told that they would call me back and everything would be fine.

16/12/16

Today I finished the shooting schedule and Josh and Nico had finished their work for the pre-production, I then got a call back from the Ashton market confirming that everything would be okay to film and that the 9th of January was booked so they were aware we were coming. A disagreement occurred and because of this the decision came to me on what to do, as the show would include the making of a sandwich the decision was to change the ''ham'' to chicken as to make it more inclusive to children in other cultures that do not eat ham. We also finally had the puppet that was going to be used within the show and we named it peri 

20/12/16

 Lucy had finished her floor plans and Conor had finished the script for Laura to look at and make changes. The Christmas holidays was soon approaching so Conor was given the task got gathering the materials for the set that we needed to build over the holidays. Conor and laura began talking more about the script and the changes she wanted to implement and I did more work on the organisation and prep of the show such as the market scene and making sure all the studio stuff was prepared for us to use after we return from our Christmas holidays. 

05/01/17

As the holidays past, I began the treatment and the call sheets and began looking at the revised script that Laura had created from Conor's script, after reading it through I was very pleased with it and was ready to begin filming as soon as we got the talent and the set built. However, I had struggled to find a suitable actor to play the role of presenter for the show and as the days were flying by this because more and more difficult. I messaged some groups that I had found on facebook to see if those communities would be able to act in our show as well as people I knew but so I have had no one be available for the job. 

09/01/17

Today I and laura began searching for a puppeteer as we had not found anyone yet to play the part of the puppet. we found someone and were waiting in to see if he was available for the shooting days I hate selected. we also began getting ready to film the VTs. we met by meeting the talent that Laura had found. we began by filming the outside scenes and then went into the inside of the market with Conor as a stand in because of the fact we did not have a puppeteer or a voice for the puppet so we improvised for the time being. After I had supervised the shots and all was completed that day we had a problem with the legal requirements, the market had not received word that we were going to film that day so I mentioned that we talked to the manager and that the paperwork will be on its way as to show we did book the place to film there.

10/01/17

Today we got the team together and began building the set, Conor and laura provided the materials to build the set such as the framework which was made of wood and was provided with my Conor's grandad and the kitchen utilities, paint and cardboard to construct the set were provided by laura. I noticed that some of the crew members were not putting 100% effort into the construction. Conor was cutting the wood to the correct sizes and laura was making the worktops and fridge, I was helping cut the boxes with josh however lucy was not really helping out as much as I had liked. Because of this we all got together and had a discussion on the time constraints we were under in completing the set. After the talk, everyone was prepared to pull their weight and help out whenever needed. 

11/01/17 

Today I did more work on the cardboard worktop following Laura's instructions and how to do it and making sure I wasn't wasting any cardboard of messing up the set. we also began painting the wooden set to make it look more colourful and friendly for the effect of the children's shows you see on TV, we chose a light purple colour for this reason. After we had a rough set laid out we all began getting used to the roles we had given out. As I was the producer I sat in the gallery with and manned the teleprompter to make sure everything was running smoothly and to get used to the use of it as I had never used it before. 

16/01/17

we began the filming of the real show. we finally managed to get a puppeteer to play the part of peri, i had begun to have issues with the teleprompter as it would crash or not respond to controls however I managed to fix this with the help of the rest of the crew when filming began it went extremely well, however, there was a member of our group that was sometimes unreliable and that he really needed to sort it out as it was bringing the whole production down. I had a very big confrontation with this person but everything was eventually resolved and he pulled his weight for the rest of that day of filming. the actors worked very well together and the communication between the two felt very realistic and easy to watch and follow. 

17/01/17

Today was the last day of filming and two members of the production team were late which meant we had to delay the filming. This was causing an issue because the cast memebrs were on a time constraint so we needed to film as fast as possiable as to not go over that time. We then began having issues with the sound as it wasn't getting picked up properly by the mic and then began making noises we tried to resolve the issue as much as we could but some noises can be heard in the final take because of the time constartes we had for that day. However we did manage to get the filming done to a good standard and everyone did a fantastic job.    

18/01/17

Today Conor began the edit of the production. I did not follow him editing but I did check in with him to see how it was going at to ask if there were any issues. There was, unfortunately, an issue with some of the footage as it contained a picture of a topless man while we filmed the market scenes for the VTs, This could have been averted if we were more observant of our surroundings. Conor was able to put a blur over the man but it needed a lot of work to look cleaner and less noticeable.  

19/01/17

Today was the last day for the edit and Conor was doing a fantastic job in making sure every fit together nicely, Conor informed me that all that needed finishing was the music and that he was finding some now for the final product. I was very happy with how this production turned out and how everyone the majority of the time pulled their weight and did their job effectively and efficiently. i had a amazing time as producer and felt i did the best of my ability for the job i was given.